Origin Live newsletter No 10

1 July 2006

contents

1 Live Sound - the differences

2 Cartridge Evaluation

3 SDS isoplatmat- owner feedback

Live sound

Everyone has their own way of evaluating sound quality. This month we felt it would be helpful to outline some of the criteria that we at Origin Live consider crucial when evaluating sound. At Origin Live we design products to deliver a great sound. We use the phrase "closest to the original sound" in our web site because this is what our products are designed to acheive. In fact the name origin Live is a shortening of the phrase "reproducing the original sound as played live". Some people have have thought the name something to do with preserving the environment - in a sense this is true of course if one thinks of the musical environment.

It is said that some magazines are advising their writers not to refer to live music when reviewing. At first this seems reprehensible but there are probably reasons that are well intentioned. Firstly much of what is called live music is actually reproduced via electronics e.g. a rock concert. This is completely different to a live orchestral brass band or an un amplified piano and singer. This is the first area of ambiguity. The second area is the number of different qualities in genuine live music, which make it confusing to lump them all together in one term.

But how can you tell how close what you are listening to is to the original sound? Most people agree that there is a difference between live sound and reproduced sound. Let us use an example; If you are walking down a street blind folded and a brass band were playing, the characteristics of the live sound would make it obvious that you were listening to a "live performance". The weighty powerfull sound would have a unique attack and reverberance. It is these immediate characteristics that many top systems seek to emulate.

With careful analysis of 'live' sound behaviour, the determination of a system's performance may be rated based on its ability to match the original qualities. Ultimately it is this that results in a great system and saves following false trails that seem good at the time but lead nowhere.

So what differences do we detect between live and reproduced music?

Transient speed

This is the speed that reproduced notes start and stop. In real-life, 'live' sound is instantly perceived as soon as the source has created the necessary pressure fluctuations within the air to excite hair cells in your cochlea.
However, electronic and mechanical devices (i.e turntables and loudspeakers) have acceleration limits,and so only the best systems nearly deliver sound as quickly as in real-life.
Resonances within the devices also cause sounds to become prolonged and again, this is not representative of the true sound.

Dynamics

Dynamics may mean slightly different things to different people but for the moment we will simply describe it as the quality of notes reaching the correct amplitude in the correct space of time. Reproducing mechanisms almost inevitably have some form of damping to control resonance and this usually has the effect of "slowing the transient speed down and reducing dynamics".

Bass that you can feel

Deep, fast, dynamic bass is usually present in live music - however this area is by far the most difficult area to control in music reproduction systems. Poorly controlled, resonant bass masks midrange and treble quality. In an effort to obtain clarity some systems deliberately reduce bass output slightly. CD manufacturers seem to start suppressing it under around 100 Hz in some cases. Vinyl is not handled in this way and this is one of the reasons vinyl records score so heavily. Good bass performance is fundamental to music reproduction as it adds a sense of power, weight and authority. Without great bass a system can seem to have clarity but ultimately sounds thin, wearing and lacking.

Harmonics that lack harshness or edginess

Natural harmonics are present in music - however systems add their own set of harmonics. A good system will produce natural sounding harmonics whereas the less natural systems (e.g. digital) introduce harmonics that are not pleasing to the ear.

Origin Live design their products to optimize these qualities..

Cartridge EVALUATION ?

We are frequently asked about suitable cartridge matches for various systems. Firstly a good arm will upgrade any cartridge but the converse is not always true. In other words an inherently superior cartridge may not always sound better than an inferior one if it is placed in a coloured or resonant arm. This is where all the talk about matching comes in and causes a great deal of confusion. It may not seem immediately apparent but this can be a case of the tail wagging the dog. People often purchase relatively expensive cartridges for their particular tonearm without considering whether to upgrade the arm itself. By replacing the tonearm a multi-fold increase in performance could possibly be achieved over that which would be obtained by upgrading the cartridge. This also enables a much better evaluation of cartridge performance and the investment lasts a lot longer. Cartridges can make a big difference. However some moving coil cartrtidges with high energy output often need a stiff arm that can handle this energy without resonating badly. Some people think this is about bearings but in our experience it is much more to do with armtube, headshell and counterweight structure. Origin Live arms seem to track ALL cartridges successfully and compliance becomes a secondary issue when an arm has inherently low resonance amplitude.

The good news is that price does not equal performance - inexpensive arms like the Origin Live Silver at £599 will massively outperform older expensive designs at 3 times the price. We stake a money back guarantee on such claims so there is no risk on your part - rest assured, regardless of the make of arm that the Silver is up against they are never returned! Most owners simply cannot believe the difference. They comment that although they didn’t believe the hype in the rave reviews, it is actually true in this case. We should mention that the higher arms in the Origin Live range improve on the already prodigious performance of the Silver to a surprising degree.

Please contact us if you are interested in cartridges or you can order them via our online shop.

SDS isoplatmat owner feedback

Experimentation with the SDS platter mat has led to some interesting results. With certain decks it is apparent that the mat sounds best decoupled from the platter by the use of the 3 cork discs we supply with the mat. This is certainly true of acrylic based platters. In June we had our first call from some one who was experiencing poor results and was on the point of returning his isoplatmat to us for a refund. The deck in question was a metal plattered Garrard. Thinking this unusual in the light of a 100% record for upgrading decks up to this time, we suggested he removed the cork pads and try it again before returning the mat. The owner was highly skeptical but a little later that day he phoned back to say how delighted he was with the improvement and that he would not be returning it after all. To build up some form of data base for future owners - please let us know your own experience of the cork pads - they obviously make a big difference one way or the other.